Choose your priority selections based off of
and remember that you can only choose a priority once and that you must choose one for each column.

The first column Metatype decides what metatypes you can choose between as well as how many points (in parenthesies) you can allocate to special skills such as those related to magic and luck

The second column Attributes decides how many attribute points you can spend on increasing your characters statistics (not skills)

The third column Magic or Resonance decides what magical abilities (if any) you have and what types of awakened you can be

The fourth column Skills lets you decide how many skill points you will be able to spend on increasing your skills (the first number is how many skill points you can spend on individual skills and the second is how many on skill groups)

The fifth column Resources decides the base amount of nuyen you will start the game with

Next select which metatype you will be out of the list in the bottom left (different metatypes have different starting advantages/disadvantages)

If you chose to be awakened then you will have a drop down below your priority drop downs that lets you select what kind of awakened you are

Below all of this will be you base stats and depending on what magic you chose (if any) you may be able to select a category of magic you are good at and then finally hit OK

You are now assaulted with a huge amount of information so we will start simple enough. There are tabs at the top (common, skills, limits so on) which we will get to one step at a time. There are words and number to the right along with two tabs to adjust what information it shows. When showing build summary it will tell you about the current points you have to spend as well as the points that you have spent. When showing other info it will show you all of the attributes of your character that are based off of math using other attributes of your character and that you cannot directly change by adding points into them. At the bottom you will see your karma stats, essence and nuyen. Now let’s begin with the tabs:

Common

First you will see that you can add good and bad qualities to your character. Depending on your previous choices you may or may not have qualities already. In order to see the stats on qualities you can use this. Positive qualities cost karma and so you can only have so many, but negative qualities give you karma. There is also a limit on qualities that you can have no more than 25 points of karma worth of positive qualities and no more than 25 points of karma worth of negative qualities. When adding qualities you will have to enter a number for the quality which just dictates how much that quality affects you, the higher the number the greater the karma cost/redemption and the greater its affect on your character in game. You will also see an area for your alias where you can put what you want to be known by. Below you will see all of your characters attributes. You can spend primary attribute points to increase your normal attributes and special attribute points to increase things like magic and edge (and resonance). You can also use karma to increase these attributes, but it cost the new level you are increasing too multiplied by 5 worth of karma. You can also use karma to increase your starting nuyen. Your attributes are:

BODY Body measures your physical health and resiliency. It affects how much damage you can take and stay on your feet, how well you resist damage coming your way, your ability to recover from poisons and diseases, and things of that nature

AGILITY Agility measures things like hand-eye coordination, flexibility, nimbleness, and balance. Agility is the most important attribute when it comes to scoring hits during combat, as you need to be coordinated to land your blows, whether you’re swinging a sword or carefully aiming a rifle. It also is critical in non-combat situations, such as sneaking quietly past security guards or smoothly lifting a keycard from its secured position

REACTION Reaction is about reflexes, awareness, and your character’s ability to respond to events happening around them. Reaction plays an important role in deciding how soon characters act in combat and how skilled they are in avoiding attacks from others. It also helps you make that quick turn down a narrow alley on your cycle to avoid the howling gangers on your tail

STRENGTH Strength is an indicator of, well, how strong your character is. The higher your strength, the more damage you’ll do when you’re raining blows down on an opponent, and the more you’ll be able to move or carry when there’s stuff that needs to be moved. Or carried. Strength is also important with athletic tasks such as climbing, running, and swimming

CHARISMA Charisma is your force of personality, the persuasiveness and charm you can call on to get people to do what you want without having to go to the trouble of pulling a gun on them. It’s not entirely about your appearance, but it’s also not entirely not about your appearance. What it’s mostly about is how you use what you have—your voice, your face, your words, and all the tools at your disposal—to charm and/or intimidate the people you encounter. Additionally, Charisma is an important attribute for shamanic mages, as it helps them resist the damaging Drain from spells they cast

INTUITION Intuition is the voice of your gut, the instinct that tells you things before your logical brain can figure them out. Intuition helps you anticipate ambushes, notice that something is amiss or out of place, and stay on the trail of someone you’re pursuing

LOGIC The Logic attribute measures the cold, calculating power of your rational mind. Whether you are attempting to repair complicated machinery or patch up an injured teammate, Logic helps you get things right. Logic is also the attribute hermetic mages use to resist Drain from the spells they rain down on their hapless foes. Deckers also find Logic extremely useful, as it helps them develop the attacks and counterattacks that are part of their online battles

WILLPOWER Willpower is your character’s desire to push through adversity, to resist the weariness of spellcasting, and to stay upright after being nailed in the head with a sap. Whether you’re testing yourself against a toxic wilderness or a pack of leather-clad orks with crowbars, Willpower will help you make it through

EDGE Edge is the ultimate intangible, that certain something that provides a boost when you need it, that gets you out of a tough spot when the chips are down. It’s not used to calculate dice pools; instead, you spend a point of Edge to acquire a certain effect. Every character has at least one point of Edge, more if they want to take more frequent advantage of the boosts it offers

MAGIC If you intend to cast spells or use magic in any way, your character needs to have the Magic attribute. Most individuals do not have this attribute, meaning their rating is zero. Mages, who cast spells, and adepts, who channel magic into enhanced physical and mental abilities, need this quality. Their Magic rating measures how capable they are in the arcane arts and how much power they can draw down to help them in their efforts

RESONANCE Similar to Magic for mages and adepts, Resonance is the special attribute for technomancers. Technomancers interface with the Matrix using the power of their mind, and Resonance measures the strength of their ability to interact with and shape that environment

When looking at the numbers with the slashes that are to the right of the attributes, the second number is the limit of the attribute. The limit dictates that you cannot have more successes (a measure of how successful you are at a given test you are trying to complete) then that many when using that attribute. At the bottom you will see contacts and enemies. Enemies are mainly just there for flavor, but contacts are a necessity. Contacts are how you get information, jobs, favors and many other things that you can’t get yourself because they have the connections/resources. At least one character in your group needs to have a fixer as a contact as fixers are the ones who get you jobs. Each contact has a loyalty and connection rating. Higher loyalty means they are more loyal to you and it’s less of a business relationship. Higher connection means they have more connections in the world and are able to get you better stuff potentially.

Skills

On the left you will see skill groups which you can use skill group points to upgrade. When you add a point into a skill group you effectively add a point to every skill in that group, however once you add a skill group point to a skill group you can no longer add skill points to the individual skills in that group. You can hover over a skill group to see what skills are inside of it. To the right you see each individual skill. Here you can add skill points to individual skills in order to increase them, however no skill can have more than 6 points placed into it. You can find a list of the skills and what they do here. On the bottom you have your knowledge skills which are basically your knowledge of different aspects of the world you live in. When selecting a knowledge skill you can choose which skill it is as well as how many points to invest in it. You also select what part of that skill you’re proficient in (for example are you better with the dialect of a language or the lingo of the language? Do you have an interest in fine wine from France or Bulgaria?).

Cyberware and Bioware

Skipping past the other tabs because they aren’t useful we get to here. This is where you can spend money to equip yourself. For a beginning character only get standard, used and alphaware augmentations if you get any. You can also select different ratings for each augmentation which will enhance it. Also keep in mind that it shows you the cost in both nuyen and essence for using this.

Street Gear

First right off the bat you can select what kind of lifestyle you want to have. Choose from the different kinds of lifestyles you can have which will have varying amounts of cost for keeping it up. Next you can add armor, weapons, gear and pets.

Vehicles and Drones

On this tab you can choose to add any vehicles or drones that you want to have. You can also set what location these are at.

Character Info

Finally we come to the last tab where you can enter any background information and the such that you want for your character. This is where you make the roleplaying part of your character. After all of this has been finished you checkmark the Mark Character as Created box and save. It will ask you to confirm and let you know if you have made any errors in the setup. Be warned that after you have done this you can no longer edit your character as far as its build, you can only edit the things it receives through playing.